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ArenaNet brilliant marketing

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  • Ashen_XAshen_X Member Posts: 363
    Originally posted by lasttime

    This post isn't about the quality of the game or whether its good or bad its just about something I found rather ingenious. ArenaNet shows some footage of the the game here and there not giving away too much but enough to make some assumptions about the game. Does a closed beta followed by a press beta. Then sets up an "open" beta which you get into by prepurchasing the game. Now what they've done with this is have only people who like the game enough, just from the info given out so far, to pay for the game entirely before release. Now those people are the ones populating the beta and surprise they like it which is statistically likely as those people were willing to prepurchase it. (Here what im sressing is not the preordering it which I've done a several times and then been unhappy with the game, but the prepurchasing which requires the the paying of the game entirely.) Now because of this the beta receives nothing but amazing reviews from most everyone in the beta. Just a little thought I had.

    I'm not sure that the, "they prepurchased it so they are more likely to enjoy it," holds up. I mean people buy games that they end up hating all of the time. A decision to buy based on the IP, Studio, or Youtube videos, followed by a discovery that the game isnt what many of the players hoped for is pretty much the standard situation for every MMO released recently.

    When all has been said and done, more will have been said than done.

  • Ashen_XAshen_X Member Posts: 363

    Well you guessed wrong. 
    I would guess that the people that LOVE GW2 are the same people that love all F2P games.

    Well, you guessed wrong.

    When all has been said and done, more will have been said than done.

  • seridanseridan Member UncommonPosts: 1,202

    I hate F2P games but I love Guild Wars 2. Guild Wars 2 has nothing in common with F2P games. In F2P games you NEED to buy gear because otherwise you die, in Guild Wars 2 you don't have to buy anything, the "cash-shop" is for convenience items or cosmetics. Also you can buy "gems" (the currency of the cash shop) with in-game gold so I don't understand the comparison between GW2 and F2P games they are totally different.

    Block the trolls, don't answer them, so we can remove the garbage from these forums

  • TwoThreeFourTwoThreeFour Member UncommonPosts: 2,155
    Originally posted by seridan

    (...)

    In F2P games you NEED to buy gear because otherwise you die, in Guild Wars 2 you don't have to buy anything, the "cash-shop" is for convenience items or cosmetics. 

    (...)

     

    No, you should switch the "you" in the sentence" for "I". Rarely if ever, do you "need" to buy anything in item mall to beat content. More often than not, grinding, having the right class composition and a bit of skill is enough to beat content in F2P games. There is no "need", it is optional. 

  • seridanseridan Member UncommonPosts: 1,202

    But the gear you can buy is usually better than the gear you get from drops.  Not to mention the restrictions on free players in  subscription mmos that changed into F2P like Lotr, War, Aion and others. That's why I said "NEED" to buy. It's almost essential if you want to compete.... if you just want to casually play the game and finish the main plot storyline you can do it.

    And of course paying for items makes you bypass months of senseless grinding...

    Block the trolls, don't answer them, so we can remove the garbage from these forums

  • MyskMysk Member Posts: 982
    Originally posted by Distopia

    I agree OP I've thought about this a few times myself. It is a brilliant marketing strategy. Keep your CB load small, use fans to sell the game, reinforce their support by giving them small increments of play, and gate entry through sales. Lets face it during these stages people choose a place to stand and relatively stay there. IE: Haters hate, Fans praise.

    People say TOR had haters during beta, yes, but most already felt that way before they played. The hate didn't maginify during beta it was the same all along (WOW clone). Just as those who were hardcore fans kept that position until after launch (the honeymoon period as some like to call it).

    What Anet is doing would be like Bioware only letting the hardcore fans in to see the game, those who liked the idea of it enough to buy it no matter what (sight unseen).

    I'm not going to say the hate would magnify if things were different. Who knows whether it would or not, but it would give those with an axe to grind a lot more informed ammunition to use, just like it did with TOR or any other open testing period. TOR had so much hate because it was more of the same. People knew what to expect from it.

    GW2 on the other hand isn't more of the same it's marketed under a promise of change, therefor it doesn't have a pre-existing stigma to overcome. Hence not as much blind hate at this point.

    This ^.

    To date, everything has been gated.  The public events, the beta invites, the experience of the pre-purchases, what reviewers have been exposed to; all of it has been a tour ride on the rails built by ArenaNet.  You see what they want you to see.  At this point, that exposure is in small chunks at a time, and in addition to that, the beta weekends are not every weekend.  Sure, a few people on the metaphorical tour bus may not be fanbois, but most of them are.  Their digital "pre-purchases" sold out.

    A comparison that I could use from my own experience would be Rift.  That game was absolutely amazing during beta, IMO, and word of mouth was very positive.  I even pre-purchased the digital CE for Rift.  They used an approach that's very similar to what ArenaNet is doing with GW2, and both Trion and ArenaNet campaign that their product is going to be genuinely different from other MMOs.

    Yes there is still a population that enjoys Rift, but we know how that MMO went.  The reality from that MMO has been very different from what we were exposed to during beta, and that's not just because of tweaks and changes.  Not at all.

    People need to use more rational, critical thinking about these products, but it's so easy to get caught up in hope and hype that I rarely ever see a critical response.  Even this post will be dismissed by people who will probably still fall back on, "but, but, we've had access to the game forever at this point!".

    That's not access.  That's a window view of what they want people to see, but some people will never accept that... not until after release.

    Will GW2 be good?  We'll see, but this is an industry - and this very much includes the gamers themselves - that rarely if ever learns from past mistakes.  It's ironic that the gamers complain about the companies always repeating the same mistakes when the gamers themselves do this as well.

  • HalandirHalandir Member UncommonPosts: 773
    Originally posted by travamars
    Yeah you go farm in BETA. Wait til the game comes out and then start praising your allmighty cash shop. It's unbelieveablre how people defend their favorite game when they know a cash shop is lurking in the background. I would guess that the people that LOVE GW2 are the same people that love all F2P games.

     

    Trying to comment your conjecture would not make sense. You seem hellbent on acting like an idiot: Good luck with that and keep on hating while your peer's have fun.

    I get it. You obviously don't - Thats what the ignore function is for: Welcome as my first!

    We dont need casuals in our games!!! Errm... Well we DO need casuals to fund and populate our games - But the games should be all about "hardcore" because: We dont need casuals in our games!!!
    (repeat ad infinitum)

  • OldManFunkOldManFunk Member Posts: 894


    Originally posted by Mysk
    Will GW2 be good?

    Yes, GW2 will be good. We've already had access to the game and I can tell you from first hand experience the combat is both fun and engaging, the sPvP is fair and balanced (in items, levels, etc), the WvW gave me that old DAoC feel (as well as a GW2 dev saying that they played DAoC and would like to add a Darkness Falls to GW2), the PvE mob AI was brilliant (check out the PvP practice mobs in the mist... they're brutal), the dynamic events were entertaining, tell a story, change based on interaction and actually impact the game world around them.

    I'd buy GW2 even if all I ever got was the little bit they let us play during the BWE because the game is that good.

    GW2 isn't like other games where you grind to max level so that you can participate in end-game activities while leaving the lower level areas behind. End-game starts at level 1. You can PvP, WvW and PvE right from the start... and it's all truly done well... better than any MMO has ever done.

    Not only will GW2 be good. GW2 is good.

  • GrayGhost79GrayGhost79 Member UncommonPosts: 4,775
    Originally posted by lasttime

    This post isn't about the quality of the game or whether its good or bad its just about something I found rather ingenious. ArenaNet shows some footage of the the game here and there not giving away too much but enough to make some assumptions about the game. Does a closed beta followed by a press beta. Then sets up an "open" beta which you get into by prepurchasing the game. Now what they've done with this is have only people who like the game enough, just from the info given out so far, to pay for the game entirely before release. Now those people are the ones populating the beta and surprise they like it which is statistically likely as those people were willing to prepurchase it. (Here what im sressing is not the preordering it which I've done a several times and then been unhappy with the game, but the prepurchasing which requires the the paying of the game entirely.) Now because of this the beta receives nothing but amazing reviews from most everyone in the beta. Just a little thought I had.

    Pre-Purchase only get access to beta weekend events. Closed beta is by invite only. Open beta hasn't happened yet.

     

    They've shown more footage than any other game has prior to release. They've also had several demo's at various conventions.

     

    The marketing strategy isn't what you seem to think it is but it is brilliant.

    They've made a good game and let it speak for itself. They've given numerous means for the game to speak for itself. The amout of gameplay footage out there is staggering, the amount of player reviews, press reviews, convention attendies reviews, etc. Anet has been extremely open with GW2.

     

     

  • illeriller Member UncommonPosts: 518

    Pure fluke.

     

    Ask any GW1 player.   Marketing has never been Anet's strong point.

    Lots of other departments in their studio were always "on the ball" about things.... but not Marketing.  Not Ever.

  • letsxhatletsxhat Member Posts: 156
    Originally posted by Halandir
    Originally posted by travamars
    Yeah you go farm in BETA. Wait til the game comes out and then start praising your allmighty cash shop. It's unbelieveablre how people defend their favorite game when they know a cash shop is lurking in the background. I would guess that the people that LOVE GW2 are the same people that love all F2P games.

     

    Trying to comment your conjecture would not make sense. You seem hellbent on acting like an idiot: Good luck with that and keep on hating while your peer's have fun.

    I get it. You obviously don't - Thats what the ignore function is for: Welcome as my first!

    Let me translate.

     

    In beta you won't see the need for a cash shop. When the game is launched, things like keys and upgrades will drop even less. Not to long ago cash shops the way GW2's is set up were a real no no. Now a lot of people are willing to over look it even though it's a lot like F2P cash shops. 

  • terrantterrant Member Posts: 1,683
    Originally posted by letsxhat

    Let me translate.

     

    In beta you won't see the need for a cash shop. When the game is launched, things like keys and upgrades will drop even less. Not to long ago cash shops the way GW2's is set up were a real no no. Now a lot of people are willing to over look it even though it's a lot like F2P cash shops. 

    Would disagree. The BIG hate for cash shops was because in any realm where two players competed, the guy with disposal income could make himself so much more powerful that the guy that didn't spend hundreds of dollars  amonth in the same shop could not possibly compete. The guy that bought items with cahs could 1-shot any player that didn't, and never get so much as scratched. He had so much gold in game he could buy 15 of everything and not care.

     

    GW2's cash shop has NOTHING even remotely close to that scale. And, thanks to both trading gold for gems and the fact things like keys drop in game, You can have the same benefits a cash shop user can have and never spend a dime. And again, those benefits don't even relaly put a dent in competition between players.

     

    Lastly, the bit you said about keys dropping less? Complete conjecture. I'll agree it would be a clever marketing ploy on their part; but we've seen no evidnece they will do that. Innocent until proven guilty.

  • MercAngelMercAngel Member Posts: 204
    Originally posted by TwoThreeFour
    Originally posted by seridan

    (...)

    In F2P games you NEED to buy gear because otherwise you die, in Guild Wars 2 you don't have to buy anything, the "cash-shop" is for convenience items or cosmetics. 

    (...)

     

    No, you should switch the "you" in the sentence" for "I". Rarely if ever, do you "need" to buy anything in item mall to beat content. More often than not, grinding, having the right class composition and a bit of skill is enough to beat content in F2P games. There is no "need", it is optional. 

    you right you do not need to buy cash shop items form the cash shop but you do need them. here's one FlyFF so when you get to around lvl 80 you only get about .01% exp per kill if you take on mobs in of the same or a few lvl higher witch can take 6+ hours to just get one lvl this is no fun at all so there one of two thing you can do at this point buy or get a cash shop item to boost the amount of exp you get or go fight soemthing abut 15lvl's higher then you. if  try and use armor and weapons from and NPC you are going to die lot and if you die you lose exp and if you lose a lot you get down leveled but there is a cash shop item to stop this also.  now if you have an upgraded armor set to +8 you can fight mobs 15 levels higher then you but you can only upgrade armor to +3 and be safe any thing pass that and if the upgrade fails the armor my be desoryed but there is a cash shop item to fix this also.  armor set drop in game but the drop rate is low you can buy the off player but the cost is high so this is something you do not want destoryed when you upgrade it

     

     

    image

  • letsxhatletsxhat Member Posts: 156
    Originally posted by terrant
    Originally posted by letsxhat

    Let me translate.

     

    In beta you won't see the need for a cash shop. When the game is launched, things like keys and upgrades will drop even less. Not to long ago cash shops the way GW2's is set up were a real no no. Now a lot of people are willing to over look it even though it's a lot like F2P cash shops. 

    Would disagree. The BIG hate for cash shops was because in any realm where two players competed, the guy with disposal income could make himself so much more powerful that the guy that didn't spend hundreds of dollars  amonth in the same shop could not possibly compete. The guy that bought items with cahs could 1-shot any player that didn't, and never get so much as scratched. He had so much gold in game he could buy 15 of everything and not care.

     

    GW2's cash shop has NOTHING even remotely close to that scale. And, thanks to both trading gold for gems and the fact things like keys drop in game, You can have the same benefits a cash shop user can have and never spend a dime. And again, those benefits don't even relaly put a dent in competition between players.

     

    Lastly, the bit you said about keys dropping less? Complete conjecture. I'll agree it would be a clever marketing ploy on their part; but we've seen no evidnece they will do that. Innocent until proven guilty.

    Cash for gems is my ONLY problem with GW2's cash shop, maybe the key thing too but to a lesser degree.

  • MercAngelMercAngel Member Posts: 204
    Originally posted by letsxhat
    Originally posted by terrant
    Originally posted by letsxhat

    Let me translate.

     

    In beta you won't see the need for a cash shop. When the game is launched, things like keys and upgrades will drop even less. Not to long ago cash shops the way GW2's is set up were a real no no. Now a lot of people are willing to over look it even though it's a lot like F2P cash shops. 

    Would disagree. The BIG hate for cash shops was because in any realm where two players competed, the guy with disposal income could make himself so much more powerful that the guy that didn't spend hundreds of dollars  amonth in the same shop could not possibly compete. The guy that bought items with cahs could 1-shot any player that didn't, and never get so much as scratched. He had so much gold in game he could buy 15 of everything and not care.

     

    GW2's cash shop has NOTHING even remotely close to that scale. And, thanks to both trading gold for gems and the fact things like keys drop in game, You can have the same benefits a cash shop user can have and never spend a dime. And again, those benefits don't even relaly put a dent in competition between players.

     

    Lastly, the bit you said about keys dropping less? Complete conjecture. I'll agree it would be a clever marketing ploy on their part; but we've seen no evidnece they will do that. Innocent until proven guilty.

    Cash for gems is my ONLY problem with GW2's cash shop, maybe the key thing too but to a lesser degree.


    Gems are what you use to buy things from the cash shop. the only way to get them is to buy the with real cash or trade in game gold for them. they do not drop as a ingame item. the only Gems in the game will be ones some one has paid cash for

    image

  • OldManFunkOldManFunk Member Posts: 894

    Any MMO can add a cash shop that sells any items at any time.


    GW2 is no different from any other MMO in this respect.


    GW2 has no subscription. GW2 makes money selling boxes, expansions and cash shop items. If GW2 isn't worth playing or if the cash shop ever gets out of hand and people start to leave then ANet doesn't get paid. There won't be any lingering subscriptions from dissatisfied customers.


    It is in every developer's interest to retain players.


    Cash shops aren't a problem until they become a problem.


    It's ridiculous to complain about the possibility of future changes to the game that are not planned and have not been announced given the exact same thing can happen to any MMO at any time.


    Don't believe me? NGE Anyone?

  • joocheesejoocheese Member Posts: 845

    Unlike D3's RMAH, GW2's CS will not effect dmg/heals. You can get all the things in the CS, via gems, through real money or through in-game gold. In other words, you don't have to spend a single penny on the CS. So long as Anet maintains this kind of CS and does not include include items which will effect dmg/heals, there won't be an issue for me.

  • terrantterrant Member Posts: 1,683
    Originally posted by letsxhat

    Cash for gems is my ONLY problem with GW2's cash shop, maybe the key thing too but to a lesser degree.

    Really? I would think the opposite would be a problem. That you'd be worried people could by ingame currency for rl money. That's usually a concern (and not an entirely unreasonable one)

     

    being able to use in game gold to buy cash shop items helps level the playing field a bit.

  • MercAngelMercAngel Member Posts: 204
    Originally posted by joocheese

    Unlike D3's RMAH, GW2's CS will not effect dmg/heals. You can get all the things in the CS, via gems, through real money or through in-game gold. In other words, you don't have to spend a single penny on the CS. So long as Anet maintains this kind of CS and does not include include items which will effect dmg/heals, there won't be an issue for me.

    another good thing abut this it will cut down if not stop the gold sellers with there spam bots buy cheep gold here as the cash shop items will not sell for huge amounts of gold like in other MMo's

    image

  • IPolygonIPolygon Member UncommonPosts: 707
    Originally posted by seridan

    But the gear you can buy is usually better than the gear you get from drops.  Not to mention the restrictions on free players in  subscription mmos that changed into F2P like Lotr, War, Aion and others. That's why I said "NEED" to buy. It's almost essential if you want to compete.... if you just want to casually play the game and finish the main plot storyline you can do it.

    And of course paying for items makes you bypass months of senseless grinding...

    Source?

  • ElifiaElifia Member Posts: 78


    Originally posted by IPolygon
    Originally posted by seridan
    But the gear you can buy is usually better than the gear you get from drops.  Not to mention the restrictions on free players in  subscription mmos that changed into F2P like Lotr, War, Aion and others. That's why I said "NEED" to buy. It's almost essential if you want to compete.... if you just want to casually play the game and finish the main plot storyline you can do it.
    And of course paying for items makes you bypass months of senseless grinding...
    Source?

    This was about F2P games, not GW2.

    "I'll lead, you follow."

  • lasttimelasttime Member Posts: 51
    Originally posted by Leodious

    You are not as subtle as it seems you think you are. Yes, it's brilliant marketing. They are using their own community to build excitement for the game. And as I am sure you know, rabid fans are also likely to turn on a company if one little thing doesn't go the way they wanted it. That this is not happening demonstrates that every single thing Anet has said publicly about the game is in, is working, and is fantastic.

    They weren't trying to keep secrets, and that's a ludicrous thing for anyone to say, given that they released more information before the pre-order/pre-purchase phase than any other MMO I've ever followed. They didn't use sleek CGI like most companies in cutscenes that show you nothing of what the game is about. Even their concept and manifest videos were mostly in-game footage and in-game gameplay. And there have been thousands of hours of raw gameplay footage released both during conventions and all the various beta events. To imply they are lying or hiding anything, especially if compared to other companies, is either a deliberate lie or a sign you have neither followed the game nor paid attention to Anet's marketing or anyone else's.

    I wasn't trying to be subtle and I also believe you have followed almost no games before this one. As for the information before preorder phase well thats uncomparable. Most mmos don't block people from preorder till a specific date. Right now mop(no I don't play wow) is preorderable and when they release a collectors someone could easy switch the reserve. No set date you have to watch like the first day of school and rush to a site or store to pre-purchase. Also no other mmo has bottlenecked their beta participants to a specific group of people like GW2. As for the repsonse they let a whole bunch of people who signed up try it, one they were under nda how would you know and second there wasn't a lot of people in during those times because if you did look into it whenever anyone broke the nda they pointed out the servers were baren. Hell at one point there was a guy on twitch who was streaming during the nda and in a 2 hour span came across 3 people. The stream never returned so I'm assuming he was caught. Your also exaggerating the hell out of the concept of other companies showing cgi while guild wars 2 was mostly in game. The only game that was truly guilty of that was swtor which did do a lot of cinematics. I saw a lot of in game for tera and a lot of in game for tsw. If you have seen very little in game from other games you honestly haven't looked. As for quantity of footage, maybe a thousand hours but redundant hours. I have seen the same areas and dungeon about a thousand times. You honestly sound you are a bit too much a fan of GW2 to compare it to anything else rationally.

  • OldManFunkOldManFunk Member Posts: 894


    Originally posted by Leodious
    They are using their own community to build excitement for the game. And as I am sure you know, rabid fans are also likely to turn on a company if one little thing doesn't go the way they wanted it. That this is not happening demonstrates that every single thing Anet has said publicly about the game is in, is working, and is fantastic.

    It's pretty amazing when you think about the staggering amount of content that's being offered for $60.

  • udonudon Member UncommonPosts: 1,803
    Originally posted by Kidon

    Closed beta (press and invited) feedback was as positive as BWE beta, i would have pre-purchased even without beta acess, but  i think you are on to something that most of us had already realized long ago but dont really care, since GW2 is just to good, and besides released footage was only gameplay, you get what your told you are going get and love it to the bone.

    The press is almost universally kind to games in beta phase for some reason.  Look at what was said about FFXIV by the media before it was released compared to what the same people said after if you don't believe me.

    As for the OP, yea the prepurchase thing is pretty good marketing as your making the people getting a detailed (more than a 30 minute convention floor demo) look at the game take some stake in it by buying the game in full.

  • ThupliThupli Member RarePosts: 1,318

    I think the OP is a MARKETER for Anet, and this is simply reverse psychology working wonders in favor of GW2!

     

    :P

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